Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Words of wisdom from a Crackhead

When I lived in DC, my life's work was as a house painter. From time to time my boss would employ a local homeless man named Gene Mills to do odd jobs and labor for the paint company. Gene was a little out of his mind. I will tell you more about him later when I write his character profile. But for now let me tell you that Gene would spend all day getting teased about how he was going to spend his paycheck at the end of the week. Also he was fired and rehired on a daily basis. When you would ask Gene what he planned on doing with his money, his reply was almost always the same, "I'm just glad to be here", with a big shit eating grin on his face. Me and a guy named Pat would always chime back at Gene, were glad to be here too, Gene.

Well now I live in Louisville as most of you know. One day at the company where i'm doing my current life's work, a month or so after the Katrina catastrophe, a guy came in looking for a manager. After getting to talking with him, he reviled to me that he was a transplant from Louisiana. I guess the patriot in me came out or something because all of a sudden I felt like I was talking to a national hero. He told me that him and his wife came to Louisville to stay with family and that his house was destroyed etc. His name is Kent. I don't know what he was life before the tragedy but everybody that meets this guy is instantly inspired by him. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I asked him if he was going to go back to Louisiana, and he told me he didn't think so, then he told me there were some Union contract issues that needed to be resolved from his "reassignment." And then he said, " i'm just glad to be here, Corky". Me too Kent

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